Empire: the good guys who keep the galaxy safe from pirates
Civilians: friendly people who provide ammo and equipment
Pirates: the bad guys trying to rule the galaxy
Desert Clan: dangerous enemies that even the empire has a hard time killing
Miners: people who mine. IIRC, they won't attack you if you don't attack them.
Techies: An alien species who have the advanced and holy grail of technology. They will attack anyone who enters their planet to protect themselves.

were back in action boys

... in fact, I'm not even sure you'd be able to buy a Small Techie ship...
Nor Hire one, either, I think.

@Devatiav -- the Player is able to "Change ship" at Trading stations -- Imperial Platforms mainly have Imperial ships, and Planetary Trading Posts may have ships applicable to the system...

The Player is not able to fly the Biggest (hostile) ships -- none of the "Boss" ships are available normally. Also, I have not seen ANY "Miner" ships available to buy; I do not believe they'd be available.

(i.e. you'd have to "hack" the game to give yourself a Boss ship SPRITE, and then you would also have to change its loadout, AND correlate weapon locations to ship config -- changing the SPRITE (image) would still base your "flight box" on what you had before, including weapon locations.)

Can a player fly any ship on this list?

The guide might need to be updated soon-ish.

So, this "guide" is a handy reproduction of the "hulls" folder in the game data. ;)
[ C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Destination Sol\res\configs\hulls ]

I note the writer didn't add info eg:
- the Pirate Space Turrets have Light Plasma Guns
- the Pirate Orbiters often drop Bombs, sometimes "carpet-bombing" over/near the player
- the Miner ships fire either NAILS (small) or ROCKETS (turret, medium, & boss)
--- .. and if you WAIT on the other side of a wall, they RUN OUT of rockets after 12-14 volleys
- the small or medium (I forget which) also has the KNOCKBACK special (just 1 or 2)

Also, not noted is the SIZE DIFFERENCE -- "simpler" designs LOOK SMALLER here, but in the game e.g. Miner Boss is actually BIGGER (zoomed) in the game; that's also why Desert Boss looks MASSIVE: complex design! the Desert Beetle isn't really so tiny by comparison.. ;)

Just sayin'.. :D

Truck is a boss since it's unique. Mining bosses however can be found at center of every asteroid (3-4 total).

needs multiplayer. multiplayer. Multiplayer!!!

I have resorted to pushing asteroids into planets.